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Ma. Margarita Z. Sandejas, Special to The Manila Times

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Estrella Alabastro told The Manila Times the Philippine government is doing what it can to create a larger pool of science professionals engaged in research and development.

For years the country’s educational system has been among the world’s largest producers of college graduates. But it is also among those that graduate the least scientists and engineers.

Secretary Alabastro, in an interview, talked about how the country is working its way toward achieving its 21st-century goals.

“We have to get to the root of the matter and move forward from there,” referring to the ills holding back the development of science and technology these past 50 years. Collaborative efforts have been slightly successful in mitigating those problems, but the scarcity of basic information required for industrial development, the small percentage of trained specialists and the lack of public awareness of and interest in S&T, she said, still have to be resolved.

She said it was a pressing matter to disseminate S&T awareness  to the average Filipino through formal education or other media.  Having the general public aware will also mean lawmakers and local government officials would have to go along with their constituents in seeking to advance S&T development in the country.

Alabastro told The Times that as a government-mandated agency tasked to foresee S&T development on the national level, DOST must prioritize S&T undertakings, particularly in the research and development areas.

“In fact, it is not a matter of budget allocation at all,” she said, “because the President has been very supportive and has given a huge amount for scholarships in these fields. It has more to do with deciding which projects are more important, requiring more work and focus.”

One of DOST’s main thrusts is the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT), a project granting scholarships to engineering students on the masteral and doctorate levels. Alabastro told The Times that for 2008 alone, the government allotted P1.2 billion for ERDT.

The Accelerated Human Resource Development Program (AHRDP) of DOST in turn provides scholarship grants in science courses also on the graduate levels. The allotment for AHRDP this year is P175 million.

ERDT sees scholars through seven schools, namely the University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Mapua Institute of Technology, Central Luzon State University, University of San Carlos and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.

As for the undergraduate levels, the government allocation for DOST scholarship grants in science oriented courses this year is P316 million. “This,” Alabastro added, “is to provide financial assistance to poor but excellent students specializing in the fields of science and engineering.”

Although Alabastro lamented that it would be advantageous to have a higher overall budget to address the low expenditure for S&T research and development, she said the President has already expressed great concern for this by upping the budget of P350 million per year normally given to this sector to P750 million in 2007 and P1.8 billion in 2008.

“These,” Alabastro stressed, “are significantly positive developments in themselves. But there are more requirements for us to fulfill in order to move up and we cannot do it in one shot. It’s a gradual process.”

Part of this “gradual process” Alabastro told The Times is the recent construction of the Science complex, which has begun at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Meanwhile, a budget allocation of P838 million is dedicated to building an Engineering complex, also at the UP for which the blueprint has already been accomplished.

“We use the funds given to us by the Philippine government for leveraging,” said Alabastro. By this, she means allocating larger amounts of the funds to more consequential and highly productive pursuits such as the empowerment of R&D human resources through comprehensive training and the development of R&D infrastructure.

“On DOST’s part, it has to be a very determined and continuous effort. This is a long-term project that can only be achieved through a collaboration of efforts.”

Alabastro added that enhanced scientific and technological competitiveness can only be attained through building up capabilities and the intervention of the education sector, but there has to be the element of the average Filipino’s genuine interest in S&T.

The Science Education Institute of DOST exists to promote a scientific culture among the Filipino community. Its chief intent is to increase the interest and knowledge of the ordinary person in S&T, for him to appreciate science as part of his regular existence. “Not merely as a profession,” Alabastro told The Times.

DOST has been drafting teaching modules in Math and Science, incorporating them recently into the curriculum in public schools, a joint effort with the Department of Education. They have also developed computer-based teaching modules in Math and Science, making them available to students in public schools.

DOST training programs for teachers in Math and Science in both elementary and high-school levels have also been initiated in collaboration with DepEd.

As part of its 50th-year anniversary and in line with the short-term goal of emphasizing the importance of S&T studies in the country and the long-term objective to boost research and development, DOST is recognizing outstanding science educators in all levels this year.

Alabastro told The Times that amplifying our country’s capabilities in S&T will take time and an almost herculean effort. But given the support of the government, the people and the major institutions, making the Philippines reach the scientific progress of more advanced economies is within reach.

The government, Alabastro said, is on the right track, focusing its energies on infrastructure, manpower and R&D.

Edward Deveza, MS; Henry Ramos, Ph. D. and Giovanni Tapang, Ph. D.,
Special To The Manila Times

Without industrialization there can be no true science and technology development.

The industries present in the Philippines are only light manufacturing, construction, public utility and mining enterprises dependent on imported equipment and raw materials. Most of these are paid for by the foreign exchange earnings of raw-material export and foreign loans. Despite government claims, assembly plants of semiconductor manufacturers and those industries that involve fringe processing do not, in general, generate technology transfer.

Until now, the country does not have an industry for capital goods. Heavy and basic industries are non-existent, except for copper processing. Machine tool industry, basic metal and chemical industries, engineering industries are yet to be established.

Existing industries merely reprocess components from abroad and are wholly dependent on technologies from advanced countries. Vital industries such as power, oil and mining have been liberalized and deregulated.

The economy remains dominated by a few families with huge landholdings and big businesses. Half of the corporate capital is concentrated in the hands of only 10 families.

The domination of our economy primarily by the US and its main local partners, the comprador big bourgeoisie and landlords, impedes the building and development of our national industries. It is of course not to their interest to change the largely backward agrarian production systems and develop the local industries, technologies and products.

We are therefore not surprised that the past and present administrations in the Philippines are also disinterested in pursuing a genuine industrialization program, much less allocate an adequate budget for science and technology development beyond the usual token amounts.

Government funding for S&T institutions remains inadequate. The private sector and industries have very little participation in S&T activities.

Technologies used in industries are focused only on assembly and testing, product innovation from other countries’ existing products and improving management strategies.

Technologies are mostly imported. The minimal R&D expenditures of private firms in the country reflect the fact that foreign capital in the country does not improve on nor use the full capabilities of science and technology personnel they employ. The attraction for these large firms is in the cheap labor and raw materials available in the country. In general, technology transfer does not happen.

The meager R&D activities result in the lack of opportunities for our S&T professionals. Government S&T institutions could not employ all of them while the lack of industrialization creates no demand for research engineers and physical scientists. Thus, most of them are forced to seek employment abroad, contributing to the “brain drain” phenomena. In 1998, about 25 percent of deployed OFWs abroad are professionals and technical workers. This has grown enormously in 2008.

Many Filipino scientists who have opted to stay in the country, meanwhile, face low budget allocations for their researches, inadequate compensation, and lack of resources and a host of other problems. Still, a lot of them produce research publications that are at par with those in other countries.

While these commendable efforts create a sense of self-reliance because of the minimal government support, these are more often than not the specialized rather than the general type of research activities done in most research institutions. Worse, the government has not used these results nor directed their research for the country’s needs.

The government’s strategic plans on S&T are not geared towards developing a truly self-reliant economy. These plans have been tailored for the export-oriented and import-dependent economic model. Thus, the government’s strategic plan does not contain efforts to build and strengthen industrialization for domestic production. Instead, it further weakens domestic production through its policy and program of opening national industries to foreign corporations and further deregulating critical base industries.

Efforts to build and improve packaging technologies also fit the government thrust of agricultural production for exports. Meanwhile, the training of data-savvy, English-speaking “IT” experts fulfills the requirements of offshore call centers but does nothing to upgrade actual skilled production for our local IT needs. Information and communications technology, with the spread of mobile phones and Internet, is largely confined to urban centers.

To further exacerbate the situation, the government has never been serious in realizing its policy pronouncements in science and technology as reflected in the steady decrease in budgetary allocations for the DOST and other R&D institutions.

To this day, there is little or no technology transfer to the Philippines from its international trade partners. Most technologies being used in the existing manufacturing/industrial sector in the country today are owned by foreign companies. Most of the patents granted in the country are of foreign origin.

Intellectual property rights laws embraced by the Philippines by large do not protect local scientific endeavors but rather hinder the country in accessing foreign technologies needed for its development.

International trade policies supported and adopted by the Philippine government also do not support the development of local industries. After years of implementing “Free Trade Globalization” under the WTO, the country continues to be driven to export more raw and semi-processed materials because of the undeveloped manufacturing systems and the continued dumping of finished goods by industrial countries—to the detriment of course of local production.

Agriculture in the country is still not mechanized. Mechanization is undertaken only by big plantations.

Nora O. Gamolo, Senior Desk Editor
Manila Times

IN the 1950s and 60s the Philippines was an industrializing country whose development and economic status, in Asia, was second only to Japan.

The country’s scientists, technologists, engineers, technicians and artisans were already producing materials, machinery and equipment suited for the country’s needs. Even before WWII, pediatrician Fe del Mundo had devised her own incubator for use in provincial and village clinics in lieu of imported incubators from the United States. Importing took long, but saving children’s lives couldn’t wait.

During the war, alternative fuels made from coconut and sugarcane and developed by Filipino scientists were used to run vehicles during the oil-tight years under Japanese occupation.

The country was ready to mass-produce cars (with engine blocks coming from the USA or Japan), televisions and radios in the 50s and just about ready to explore new scientific domains. Filipino artisans redesigned the US military jeep and devised the jeepney, still our primary form of conveyance and now exported abroad. Food processing was already mature and the food canning industry was about to develop (hampered only by lack of pressed tin).

Yet, without looking at these historical facts, credible studies of recent times say that “the Philippines has yet to achieve a high level of technological readiness and innovative capacity that typifies well-developed economies and those entering the developed phase like India,” as noted in the country’s Medium-Term Development Plan for 2004-2010. (India with a full-fledged steel industry has been making motorcycles, trains, cars, trucks and airplanes for 50 years now.)

The 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Report places the Philippines in the 71st spot out of 125 countries in terms of technological readiness or ability to adopt technologies from home or abroad to enhance the productivity of its industries.

In contrast, the country’s Asian neighbors had higher places than us: Singapore placed second; Hong Kong, 13th; Korea, 18th; Japan, 19th; Malaysia, 28th; and Thailand, 48th.

In the area of innovation or the ability to produce brand-new technologies, the country ranks a dismal 79th. Compared with emerging innovation powerhouses in Asean like Singapore (ninth), Malaysia (21st), Indonesia (37th) and Thailand (33rd), the Philippines clearly has a lot of catching up to do.

Why has the country sunk from second most industrialized, scientifically and technologically developed country to near the bottom in Asia in just 37 years?

The first reason is the lack of significant logistical support from government and other institutions. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has reported that to spur innovation, developing countries allocated one percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) for research and development (R&D).

The country has missed out on opportunities offered by R&D, however. According to a 2003 government data, the Philippines has only spent 0.14 percent of its GDP for R&D. Of the total amount spent for it, only 30 percent came from the government sector, with the bigger 70 percent coming from private sector initiative.

The UNESCO also reported that the average for developing countries is 380 R&D personnel for every one million population. Then again, according to the 2003 data, there were only 164 R&D personnel for every million Filipinos—including scientists, engineers, technicians and auxiliary personnel.

The decline in the country’s ranking was progressive. The Philippines was ranked third out of 49 nations in producing knowledge jobs in 2001, up from eight in 2000, according to the United States -based META Group’s Global Technology Index (GTI). The GTI is the successor of the Global New E-Economy Index (GNEI), a cyber atlas that represents an important measure of the economic dynamism and strength, as well as the technological capabilities and potential of each country.

However, the 2001 GTI ranking (when the Philippines was third) is still lower than the country’s first place ranking in the knowledge jobs category in 1999, which included ranking criteria on senior management, availability of IT skills, and qualified engineers.

Based on the 2001 GTI, the country declined from 35th to 39th in the transformation of the country’s digital economy in 2001, attributed mainly to the decline of the number of computers per capita, weak deployment of cellular access and small population of Internet users.

Meanwhile, the significant drop, from 38th place to 45th, in the technological innovation capacity category was due to the decrease in the number of patents issued. The total R&D expenditure also decreased, adding to the overall decline in this category. While the decline in the globalization category accounts for the decreased export of commercial services and direct investment flows abroad.

More logistics at last

The sector has endured many wounds, including the exodus of its best and brightest scientific minds after the 1960s to other countries. Today, , the government is looking at giving more logistical support to boost this most vital component of development. The only question is: Is logistical support all that is necessary to boost this vital sector?

From a shoestring budget of P920 million in 1990 to a staggering P5.29 billion in 2008, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has, to a certain extent, succeeded in reversing neglect and given the sector a fair level of attention.

Executive Order 128 mandates the DOST “to provide central direction, leadership and coordination of scientific and technological efforts, and ensure that the results therefrom are geared and utilized in areas of maximum economic and social benefits for the people.”

The DOST’s 2007 budget was P3.6 billion, and this was increased for 2008 by 47 percent.

In 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2002, DOST endured budgetary cuts. In 2007, it had zero increase from its 2006 budget.

The DOST budget provides for increased budget for its four major thrusts: diffusion of knowledge and technologies, generation of new knowledge and technologies, development of human resources for the scientific and technological (S&T) sector, and provision of quality S&T services.

Seven R&D institutes

From its total budget, DOST hopes to support seven R&D institutes, six service institutes, five sectoral planning councils and two collegial bodies. The Philippine Atmospheric and Geo­physical and Astronomical Services Admi­nistration (Pagasa), Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and the Philippine Science High School System are but three of the six DOST service institutes.

According to the DOST, diffusion of knowledge and technologies is one of its four major thrusts. There is the Small Enterprise Upgrading Program (SETUP) that helps enhance the competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises through technological interventions. The Techno Gabay Program, on the other hand, includes the Farmer’s Information Technology Service (FITS) Center targeting over 70,000 clients in 2008.

Lastly, the Technology Commercialization Program contains Technology Innovation for Commercialization (TECHNICOM), establishment of technology business incubation and support to inventors.

For generating new knowledge and technologies, the science department hopes to strengthen R&D in the areas of biotechnology, information and communications technology (ICT), environment, alternative energy, health/medicinal products, and other projects.

The conduct of contract researches with the private sector addresses specific needs in technological upgrading, product enhancement and an overall increase in productivity. In 2008, the department hopes to achieve 175 projects in the areas of food processing, nutritional products, informa­tion and communication technology, environment, wood processing, nuclear services and metalwork.

Developing human resources is another thrust of the department. It aims to accelerate the production of high-level S&T human resources, especially in R&D. It has programs for MS and PhD scholarships, undergraduate and secondary scholarships. It also has the accelerated human resource development program that has awarded 213 masteral and 16 doctoral scholarships in science and engineering. The program has an allocation of P175 million in 2008.

The DOST also promises to provide quality S&T services on testing and calibration, disaster preparedness and mitigation, and information.

DOST has drafted the National Science and Technology Plan for 2002-2020 (NSTP 2020) as a long-term indicative plan that sets the direction of S&T development in the country until 2020. It also sets the expectations of the S&T community over the government’s promise to make S&T the foundation of future economic deve­lopment in the country.

The NSTP 2020 supports the visions and goals stated in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP): macroeconomic stability with equitable growth based on free enterprise, agriculture and fisheries modernization with social equity, comprehensive human development, and good governance.

Another dimension

To all these propositions, activist scientists want to add another dimension: nationalist industrialization that can only be brought about by reversing the backwardness of the agrarian economy (agriculture accounts for about seventy percent of all economic output) and pushing for the development of the country’s basic industries to generate more entrepreneurial pursuits and jobs.

Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
Manila Times

Science and technology, a sector pitifully neglected by government this past half-century, is now at last being given the importance it deserves (see “S&T sector at last gets proper funding—P5.29B this year” and “DOST creating larger pool of scientists.”).

But these new efforts—Agham’s nationalist economists write—will fail to raise the sector to its proper level of usefulness to the whole economy—and the poor—unless government policy that de-emphasizes industrial development in favor of  call-center BPOs and instant-income businesses is reversed (see “Science and tech development hinges on industrialization”).

What does it mean to have a fully useful science and technology sector of a Philippine economy that is globally competitive?

World-class scientists

It means, among other things, that both Philippine industry and academe are adequately provided with highly qualified, world-class scientists, engineers and technicians.

Some of these will concentrate on research and development—a number of whom will work closely with business and industrial corporations.  Others will be employed by industries.

Serving industries

This means in turn that science and technology pursuits, including S&T education, solidly serve not just the needs of Philippine industries but also that of sustaining Philippine S&T development.

It also means that one of the defects of the current S&T situation in our country will disappear—that ivory tower outlook of many of our scientists in academe. They feel stained by contact with the world of products to be marketed and profits to be made.

Theoretical scientists

But there will also be those whose interest in purely theoretical pursuits in physics and chemistry will be encouraged.  They will get good pay and enjoy working conditions just like the others whose work produces immediate pragmatic results.

The youth will be as eager to take science and technology courses as today  the majority of them want to become TV and movie celebrities.

And S&T graduates will no longer look for jobs abroad, much less take nursing so they could be hired as caregivers in the United States.  IT professionals, electrical and electronic engineers will no longer take voice and English speech improvement courses to be hired by a call center or another type of voice Business Processing Outsourcing office.  (In the first place, they would already be speaking Good English.)

Jobs here at home

S&T graduates will have jobs waiting for them even before they actually receive their college diplomas.  Their pay will be equal to what they would be getting if they were to work in Singapore, China or Europe and the USA.

Today, S&T graduates—unless they are at least cum laude graduates—will have to settle with a Philippine entry-level salary of between P10,000 to P15,000 a month.  Abroad, he/she would get at least $500 with allowances and overtime pay.

There will be no more of the so-called “mismatch” between the workforce needs of industries and the quality of graduates produced by Philippine colleges and universities.  (See “Industrialists fret about, investors deterred by technology brain drain.”)

For the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) would have improved the educational system so well.  College graduates would speak and think in good English as well as in one of our native languages. Everyone who has finished high school would have a world-class mastery of essential Science and Mathematics. And S&T graduates, in whatever field of specialization or branch of science and technology, can work as peers of the best anywhere in the world. But the Filipino would normally wish to stay and work here at home.

CHED will no longer ask the reporter of The Times to submit a letter requesting the statistics needed for this report.

[Our reporter had gone to the CHED public information officer with these questions:

“According to the President of the Philippines and several industrialists, both foreign and domestic, there are many science/technology-related jobs available in the Philippines but there are not enough qualified graduates from Philippine colleges and universities.

“What is CHED’s estimate of this mismatch?  Which areas of work and scientific technological specialization have the highest number of jobs available that are unfilled because there are not enough graduates?

“Which S&T specialists are in highest demand?

“What has been the CHED’s response to this problem?

“What are  CHED’s two main thrusts or two main programs to increase interest among high-school graduates in taking up science and technology degrees?

“Has there been an increase or decrease from 2005, 2006 to 2007 in science and technology course enrollment in Philippines colleges and universities?

“What, according to the CHED’s knowledge, is the extent of the brain drain—the departure for jobs abroad of  Filipino scientists and technology graduates—per year in 2005, 2006 and 2007?

“What are the  problems—from the biggest/most inmportant to the smallest—concerning  this issue of improving science and technology education in the country and increasing the number of science and technology tertiary education graduates ?”

The Times reporter was told to get a letter from the Editor in Chief addressed to CHED formally asking these questions.  He was not told that executive privilege was involved.]

Industrialization a reality

In that future and blessed time, science and technology development will be as satisfactory as or even better than in any of our Asean neighbors.  This is because not only have Philippine basic industries been resurrected but also new and advanced industries have begun to flourish in our country.  For Philippine industrialization has at last become a reality!

Science and technology education would have a place for experimentation outside academe and for apprenticeship—the laboratories of actual industry.  And S&T education would have an end­—good jobs in industry or in academe.